Friday, February 17, 2017

Bad news about the Netherlands

Dutch
right-wing politician Geert Wilders of the Freedom Party listens in the
courtroom in Amsterdam June 23, 2011. Wilders was acquitted of inciting
hatred of Muslims in a court ruling on Thursday that may strengthen his
political influence and exacerbate tensions over immigration policyREUTERS/POOL/Robin Utrecht

The far-right leader's Freedom Party is already leading with 17% in the polls.

February 18, 2017The Netherlands is witnessing a rise in far-right populists gearing
to take part in the country's elections. Of these contenders, Geert
Wilders is already in the lead with his anti-Muslim stand and promise to
remove the Netherlands from the European Union.
The Freedom Party (PVV) leader will launch his election campaign today,
18 February in which he promises to "de-Islamise" the nation by banning
Muslim immigration, shutting down all mosques and banning the sale of
the Quran in bookstores. According to the Central Bureau for Statistics,
around 5% of the Dutch adult population is Muslim.
While lawyers have pointed out that these plans could be in violation of the constitution, Wilders hinted to AP that there was room for change.
"A
constitution is not something that is (set) in stone and can never be
changed," he told AP. "It's alive as a society is alive and we are now
being threatened by mass immigration and Islamisization and what I see
as the toxic combination of mass immigration from Islamic countries and
at the same time a total lack of demanding for people to assimilate and
to integrate."
The launch of his campaign is expected to be a
heavily guarded event, considering the multiple threats made on his life
for his anti-Islam stand.
"I want us in government," Wilders told the press earlier this week, as he explained his policies, which have found commonality with Donald Trump's
own. He also celebrated the US president's election win back in
November, calling it a "historic victory" and a "revolution" in which
"the people are taking their country back".
Despite criticism of Wilder's far-right views, the Freedom Party is leading in polls with 17%, followed closely by Prime Minister Mark Rutte's People's Party for Freedom and Democracy.

About Me

As a kid I liked numbers and the sound of strings. I considered studying engineering but chose social sciences because of my interest in people. I combine a theoretical interest with a practical, social approach which brought me to the sphere of policy research. I am interested in reducing the disparity between poor and rich, between the powerful and the less powerful.
In 1973 and 1982 I lived in Latin America. In the mid-1980s, I was able to create an international forum to discuss the functioning of the international monetary system and the debt crisis, the Forum on Debt and Development (FONDAD). I established it with the view that the debt crisis of the 1980s was a symptom of a malfunctioning, flawed global monetary and financial system.
I was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the European Network on Debt and Development that was established at the end of the 1980s to help put pressure on European policymakers.
In 1990, before the beginning of the Gulf War, I cofounded the Golfgroep, a discussion group about international politics comprising journalists, scientists, politicians and activists that meets regularly.
The website of FONDAD is www.fondad.org